Raikkonen frustrated after qualifying gamble backfires

A frustrated Kimi Raikkonen says he is ‘very disappointed’ to have been eliminated from the first session of qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver was knocked out of qualifying by Jules Bianchi’s Marussia after the team decided not to send the Finn out for a final run at the end of Q1.

“I am very disappointed with the outcome of qualifying,” said Raikkonen. “Especially because this weekend I was
going well and had a good feeling from the car.

“After the first run on the Medium tyres the team told me that my time should be good enough to get me through to the next part and so we decided to take a risk and not go out for a second run on the softer compound. Unfortunately, it didn’t pay off and I couldn’t get past Q1.”

Ferrari Director of Engineering Pat Fry explained the rationale behind the team’s decision not to send Raikkonen out for a final run. “The fact that Maldonado and Hamilton were out led us to keep both cars in the garage, banking on the times set with the Medium tyres,” Fry explained.

“With Fernando this worked, but unfortunately, with Kimi we were caught out by the evolution of the track. It’s very disappointing not to have got through with him because he’s been going better this weekend.”

With Raikkonen set to start 16th on the grid following Kevin Magnussen being forced to start tomorrow’s race from the pitlane, the Ferrari driver is not optimistic of his chances of scoring points this weekend.

“It’s going to be difficult, because there’s not much chance of overtaking here at the Hungaroring,” said Raikkonen.

“We definitely made a mistake, but now I only want to look ahead. Tomorrow, even if it will be tough, we will do our best to try and move up the order.”

On Q1 they drive to a time usually on their first laps to see if they go to Q2, if needed the go out a 2nd time, this to save tires, the team told him to stay put, he did so, how is that his fault, his only mistake was not to second guess the team, some one messed up, it was not the driver

You’re right, but I wouldn’t go ballistic at them because the car is mediocre so they’re trying to catch every opportunity that show up, in this case saving a Softs set for the race. The only way to do it was in Q1, and it worked for ALO. But they should have been a lot more careful indeed as RAI is many times a lot slower than ALO (0.5 to 1s), so they should have predicted it might not work with RAI.

Options should be saved even more because rain is a threat. Start on softs, wets, or inters, and keep a fresh set for when slicks are needed, unless you honestly think it would be too wet for less than one stint of slicks…

In a way, yes, you can say Kimi wasn’t fast enough either. As I said, it worked with ALO, no ?! And some proof is that Bianchi made it to Q2 by being just 0.064sec faster than Kimi, while ALO was 0.7sec faster than Bianchi.

you realize just last week that Rosberg was having trouble getting in a clean lap in Q1 (twice failed)?

Often times you get a driver, such a Webber or Vettel, struggling in Q1 and there have been times they needed to burn a set of the Options to get into Q2. They would then use that tire in the first run in Q2.

This was a huge blunder by Ferrari, and they should own up to it, along with Ferrari fans.

Sorry, Ferrari cannot own up to the incompetence of one of its drivers. It is now half way point in the championship and if Kimi is still not able to adapt his driving to the car then it is a problem with Kimi.

.7 sec is a serious gap to your team mate. And the fact that Bianchi only beat him by .07 of a second makes Ferrari’s decision even more right. They wouldn’t have been able to justify burning a set of options for that.

Also it was a massive lap from Bianchi to actually even achieve that. Ferrari might have erred on their judgement but it was Kimi’s responsibility to stick a lap that is worthy of qualifying for Q2.

Haven’t we seen this before? When will Ferrari learn their lesson? Everyone knows that the Hungaroring gets faster the more it’s used. I felt so bad for Kimi he looked like he was finally getting some good pace out of the car this weekend but the brain trust threw it away for him.

Kimi asked a couple times on the team radio if he should go out, the team said no. Ferrari’s fault completely. Disappointing. I mean they hire Kimi for tens of millions dollars and then they “sabotage”(i don’t mean this literally) and treat him like that.

Cant understand why is this Ferrari’s fault completely… … Yes, Ferrari made a mistake by not sending Kimi out again but so did Kimi by setting a lap time significantly slower than his team mate (.7 sec)… Both the driver and the team were at fault here in my book..

Nope, Raikkonen knew his lap wasn’t all that good, that’s why he asked multiple times if he should go out again. If you say to your team you aren’t confident with your current lap and want to go out again and your team says no, it’s all the teams fault…

So, does it look like Kimi ‘I-know-what-I’m-doing’ Raikkonen really knows what he’s doing? Not really. It turns out that to curse his own engineers on the radio is a lot easier than to own up to the mistakes they make together. Perhaps he should really hang up his helmet and free a seat for the likes of Jules Bianchi, who does look like he knows what he’s doing.

You are obviously blind to the multiple comments and sources stating raikkonen asked to go out multiple times. So in this case, he did know what he was doing, the team didn’t. Take your hate elsewhere.

i know it’s kinda of a silly season comment, but how about this: Ferrari hires kimi to get cover unde the possibility of Fernando going elsewhere at the end of this year (mclaren, redbull, who knows?) and they still have a WDC and the other seat goes to Bianchi… Personally i don’t think this is going to happen, but it doesn’t sound that bad either. And, let’s wait and see for next year. i presume that Allison will be more responsible for that car, and both Kimi and Fernando were quite succesful in Allison’s cars… maybe next year is better for both of them (or for the one who actually stays at the Scudería)

Would REALLY like to see Kimi back at Mclaren (my team)
Button WILL leave end of year
Mclaren like him – can`t see Hamilton leaving Mercedes end of year
Mclaren NEED something for marketing the new Hona PU

This again was a very basic mistake by Ferrari. I think Mattiachi will scratch his head about this one. They obviously tried to save a set of option’s, but they should have send Kimi out on track when his time went down the rankings. Also with his time on prime tires way of Alonso’s, they should have given Kimi more laps on that tire. Today Ferrari underperformed as a team.

I guess after him changing last race’s strategy and the current 10-0 this season his mechanics dont even care about his opinion anymore. I’m surprised a harsh and loud driver like Raikkonen didnt “force” a way out of the garage (as in arguing until they dont care about him anymore).

“After the first run on the Medium tyres the team told me that my time should be good enough to get me through to the next part ” kimi said. It is clear that once again the team work against him. Deliberately? We’ll never know if Kimi does not decide to discuss it someday.

I presume it was more due to a team fault.
I really like this driver. He is incredibly fast. I still think that he is fastest on the grid if car suits his driving.
But anyway. I think also that instead of going for a rest Kimi must work out all his mistakes and learn how this car should be handled. This should be his homework for the next month.